Do we scare you?
Us—the people you wear blue for every April?
Do we scare you?
Us—the people who have a little different way of thinking?
Do we scare you?
Us—the kids that spend their days in special education classrooms, learning the same things you do but in a different way?
Sometimes, you scare us
With your bullying and refusal to understand
Sometimes, you scare us
Because you can’t or won’t see the human underneath
The only thing you see is a target
And the people who do accept us? What do you do to them?
You bully them too because they had the courage to break away from the crowd and befriend someone who’s different
Befriend someone they don’t quite understand but are willing to learn about
You’re scared of us because we’re different
Is that it?
You’re scared because you can’t tear down the brick wall of normalcy you’ve put up in front of you
You’re too scared to look around it because you don’t know what you’ll find
How do you think it is for us, then?
We have to live in a world that isn’t equipped to handle us and our needs
A world where lights are too bright and people are too loud and clothes are itchy on our skin
A world where public schools don’t teach us right and we get pushed around
Did you ever think of putting yourself in our shoes?
I think you can’t because your fear holds you back
Fear of the unknown
Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t stop us
We’re here
We’re not leaving
In fact, we’ll do more than stay
No, we’ll survive and we’ll thrive
Buddy, prepare yourself
Prepare your heart, soul and mind
Because one day
Not today
But one day, you’ll have to find the courage to pick your head up, look us straight in the eye, and admit you were wrong
That you didn’t see how much we make the world a better place
And more than that
You’ll have to find the courage to look us in the eye and admit that we’re humans, too